I love recommending books; it is one of my favourite things – when I’m not reading books of course. So I am always very (too?) vocal in my book group, when we get round to discussing and choosing ‘the next book’. I have belonged to, or run, many book clubs over the years and have the following advice for members of book groups who struggle to choose books or want to get out of the rut of their current choices.

Selection system

Before talking about book selection choices, as a group you need to agree HOW you will select your books. Democratically (obviously) but how? One option is for each member of the group to take their turn to select the following month’s book; another option is for all of the group members to each recommend a book, then once all books have been presented, the group votes and the book with the most votes is selected.

Some groups like to have their reading list set for the next six months, or even the year, others like to ‘wing it’ a bit more and don’t like the idea of being tied down to six to 12 book selections. It’s up to you.

Accessibility of the text is another element to take into account; you don’t want to select books that are only available in hardback, are brand new so super expensive or not stocked in the library.

What sort of books do you want to read?

Once you have decided how you will be choosing books, you might want to limit the selection to a certain genre (science fiction, contemporary literature, short story), a specific author (Dickens, Austen) or award winning books (like working your way through the Booker winners list). Ongoing or monthly themes are also a useful way to limit selection e.g. ‘madness’ (The Yellow Wallpaper, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox).

How to select a good ‘discussion’ book

As Dorothy Parker so beautifully put it once about a hated tome, “…this is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.” It is too easy to select a book that doesn’t work for a book group discussion: Too pretentious; too simplistic; too controversial; sometimes a book that is really enjoyable to read for one’s own pleasure just doesn’t have enough depth for discussion purposes.

Books that work well for discussion are novels that offer an intriguing plot such as Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, a polarizing storyline such as Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin or something that enables an ‘ethics’ discussion such as Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale or Herman Koch’s The Dinner. Further suggestions are listed at the end of this article.

Reading guides, book recommendations, resources

Need a bit of extra help to talk about your chosen book, or come up with discussion questions? Publisher sites are very supportive of their readers; many post discussion guides, author interviews, suggestions for further reading, etc. Some also host online book clubs/discussions that you can join in. There are, of course, also many, many book group guides sites: Goodreads is the largest site for readers and book recommendations in the world. It has more than 14,000,000 members who have added more than 470,000,000 books to their shelves. There are online book clubs, online discussions, etc. and it is a great site to get ideas for books to read. Reading group guides and Book Browse both offer hundreds of reading guides to a range of contemporary and classic literature and fiction (and some non-fiction too).

List of further suggestions

This could be endless, I know I will have missed lots of people’s favourites. I apologize in advance!

Books that stimulate strong discussion/dissension:

The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Gone Girl, Gilian Flynn

Atonement, Ian McEwan

Perfume, Patrick Suskind

People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks

We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lionel Shriver

Books made into films:

The Book Thief, Markus Zusak

Chocolat, Joanne Harris

Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

Life of Pi, Yann Martel

Emma, Jane Austen

Les Misérables, Victor Hugo

Short stories:

Collected short stories, Roald Dahl

Short stories, W.Somerset Maugham

Like a House on Fire, Cate Kennedy

The Garden Party & Other Stories, Katherine Mansfield

Historical fiction:

The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton

Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel

The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco

Restoriation, Rose Tremain

Dystopian themes:

The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood

1984, George Orwell

The Passage, Justin Cronin

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

Wool, Hugh Howey

Fantasy/Magic Realism

The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern

The Time Traveller’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger

One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez

Like Water for Chocolate, Laura Esquivel

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About Nicola

I am a proud book nerd who also has the travel bug bad; I LOVE recommending books to others (even when they aren't that interested) and spend way too much time looking at amusing cat photos on the internet.